St.Johns County Balloon and Lantern Release Ordinance

On January 18th, St. John's County became the first county in Florida to unanimously vote 5-0 to ban balloon and lantern releases. You can read about it here and here. Many thanks to the county commissioners who voted for the protection of our marine and coastal environment and species on the First Coast.  Huge thanks to our First Coast Surfrider chapter volunteers, coalition partners including Oceana and especially Nicole Crosby who demonstrated the physical damages this pollutant does and to the awareness that this brought.

The First Coast Chapter during its many beach cleanups became concerned about the damaging impacts of increased balloon litter found across Duval and St. John's Counties.  We joined in with coalition partners in letter writing and petition gathering campaigns across St.John's County to fight this plastic that is released without thought.

Balloons filled with lighter-than-air gases like helium ascend, but also decend and unfortunately are having terrible impacts globally on wildlife. They do not biodegrade before potential ingestion by livestock and wildlife to include marine animals. In waterways, turtles and other animals often  mistake them for jellyfish causing illness and death.  The thin metal on mylar balloons additionally can cause outages and fire hazards when they get caught in power lines.  In fact, in 2018, the Balloon Council, an organization of balloon retailers, distributers and manufacturers, actively and publicly advocated against the release of balloons to “protect our planet”. 

The First Coast Chapter and coalitions across St. John's County, Florida began a petition campaign in 2019 to ask multiple cities in Northeast Florida to pass a ban on intentional releases of balloons and sky lanterns.  Many cities in the area have now adopted such ordinances including the cities of Fernandina, Atlantic, and Neptune Beaches. 

St. John's County passed the first reading of an ordinance in December, 2021 to amend Ordinance No. 1988-26 “Prohibiting Littering and Abandonment of Cars on Public Right of Way”.  On January 18th, 2022 at 9am at the County Auditorium the 2nd reading passed the new draft language in Section 3 to include “prohibit the outdoor release of balloons and sky lanterns”.  

The First Coast Chapter  congratulates St. John's County for leading the way for the state to finally ban balloon and lantern releases and we hope this will inspire an update to state legislation. 

You can thank the 5 Commissioners of St. John's County by copy and pasting the following email addresses: bcc1cwhitehurst@sjcfl.us; bcc2sarnold@sjcfl.us; bcc3pwaldron@sjcfl.us; bcc4jblocker@sjcfl.us; bcc5hdean@sjcfl.us

As the website says, “Balloons Blow”! Don't let them go!